Mariners Minor League News for July 15
As promised, a minor-league news update.
***
Taijuan Walker (Talk40 #2) pitched the 2nd inning of the Futures Game for Team USA and gave up only a lone walk: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K.
He got Twins prospect Miguel Sano and Baltimore prospect Henry Urrutia to ground out, then gave up the walk to Tiger hopeful Jordan Lennerton before inducing a popup from Gregory Polanco of the Pirate organization.
Gameday had him maxing out at 97 and consistenly in the 94-96 range, with the curve coming in at 73-74 and with a 92-93 mph cutter.
His 21st birthday is August 13. Just need to find a trading partner for J. Saunders or Harang and he'll be spending it with the Mariners.
***
By the way, the MVP of the game was Diamondback prospect Matt Davidson, who hit a key two-run jack for Team USA.
Davidson and Walker were high school teammates at Yuciapa High School in California. Davidson was a year ahead, but when they played together in 2009, the team went 27-3. I would hope so.
Davidson is hitting .291/.354/.500 for Reno.
***
Our man Ji-Man Choi (Talk40 #19) came in as a reserve at first base for the International team. He replaced Lennerton in the 6th.
He flew out to center in the 7th and struck out in the 9th.
***
Upper minors All-Star games get played simultaneous with the MLB affair, even though their seasons are well more than half over (they end in early September).
Regardless, here's the skinny:
The AAA All-Star Game pits the Pacific Coast League against the International League. It is set for Wednesday in Reno. Tacoma sends Carlos Peguero (Watch List) and reliever Brian Moran (Talk40 #35).
It's great to see Moran get some recognition for his terrific season:
2.54 ERA | 1.26 WHIP | 2.5 BB/9 | 12.5 K/9
***
And here's Matt Davidson again. At the time of the selection for the AAA Home Run Derby, Peguero had more homers and Davidson (they are now tied at 14), but league officials picked Davidson over C-Peg because they wanted a player from the local team to boost interest.
That's according to Mike Curto.
***
The AA Southern League gets a game to itself: North vs. South in Jacksonville, also Wednesday night. Jackson sends outfielders Julio Morban (Talk40 #15) and James Jones (Watch List) and RHP Roenis Elias (26intheMix).
Morban is listed as a starter, but, as rick82 noted in a comment yesterday, he hasn't played since July 6, so who knows if he'll play?
We love Morban, but the injury thing may be getting to "critical mass." (We also want more walks and more ISO, but everything in good time.)
And we also appreciate the recognition for El Cubano Elias, who has made great strides and is heading toward the top tier of prospects.
2.87 ERA | 1.19 WHIP | 3.4 BB/9 | 7.8 K/9
***
In addition to Morban, we've noticed D.J. Peterson out of action with no ready explanation. He hasn't played since July 11.
***
A bunch of moves were made, but some of them were designed to get pitchers Erasmo Ramirez and Andrew Carraway (Watch List), both coming off injuries, a chance to keep on regular rotation during the All-Star breaks by pitching for Everett, so it's not clear yet how everything will shake out. Therefore, I won't go into every little detail.
One move I failed to note earlier, though, was Jamodrick McGruder (26intheMix) getting the promotion from Everett to Clinton, where he probably should have been anyway.